The Hitting Zone

At least the two hours flew by with Noah's rambling. He talked to me about everything from pro baseball, to who will play well enough to pick dinner for tonight. I mostly sat, listened, nodded or shook my head, and spared a few words if needed. Noah could honestly carry a conversation by himself without any difficulty.

We pulled up to a quaint high school up in the mountains, surrounded by a forest. As it was May, the trees had started to grow some green leaves again, making me feel refreshed with the clean air.

The women's coach that had spoke with Marie about my seating arrangements was the first to stand as we pulled into the parking lot. "Since we have the first game, I'll have to ask that the boys remain in their seats and let the girls out first so we can get going." She looked around. "Girls. We'll head straight to the locker room to get changed. Then meet at the field for warmups. Stay sharp, don't fool around." When the bus parked next to what I presume is the gymnasium with the locker rooms, the girls all got up and followed their coach off the bus. The assistants followed behind and they started to unload their bags from the compartment underneath.

Our coach stood up and clapped his hands once to get our attention. "We've been informed that we have the same umpires as the softball game. That means we'll watch their game until the fourth or fifth inning." No one objected or interrupted. "After the girls get out of the way, we'll grab our gear and change into our uniforms as well. Porterville High doesn't have a club room by their baseball field so you'll have to change in the locker room. Take your time. The softball team will still have to warmup before taking the field."

We listened to the instructions and waited for the girls team to finish gathering their equipment. Afterwards, we grabbed our own and found the men's locker room to change. Luckily there was a restroom just inside, allowing me to change privately in a stall. Noah gave me a look of concerned when I rejoined him outside the locker room, but nothing was said. We stood, fully dressed in our uniforms, waiting for the rest of the team.

Our teammates trickled out one by one, two by two, and so on. Until we had everyone. Then as a team, we walked to the softball field with Zeke leading the way. We met the coaches by the visitor bleachers and spread out so we could relax in our own ways.

Noah and I sat near the back of the bleacher, on one of the highest seats so we could have the best view. Both softball teams were finishing their warmups to prepare for their afternoon game time. On the home side, their bleacher was completely packed with parents and students, coming out to show some serious support. Meanwhile, our girls softball team only had us.

"Are none of their parents going to come?" I asked Noah.

Noah shrugged. "Regular adults work in the afternoon. And to drive two hours here and two hours back would be a waste of time." His words made sense, but it also made me realize how awesome his parents were to change their schedule just so they can watch their boys play.

"Hey. Got a minute?" Chris climbed a few rows to get close enough to speak to us, but didn't get too close to make me scared. Just slightly nervous. He did have to take a week off from baseball.

"What do you want?" Noah asked, not even bothering to play nice or to appease the senior.

Chris ignored him, looking up at me. "Just wanted to apologize about my actions last weekend. I shouldn't have laid into you like that. It's not my job." His expression remained bland like he was reading off a teleprompter.

I gave a nod of acceptance.

He turned mechanically like a robot and went down to the first row to join some other seniors.

"I call bs." Noah huffed. "That was probably just an act to please Zeke and the coaches."

I shrugged. "As long as he's not mad anymore, then I don't care."

"Ah, you're so naive." Noah rolled his eyes. "Don't worry, I'll make sure he doesn't get too close ever again."

I smiled. "Thanks Noah."

He pushed me away. "Stop that. There's no need for thanks between brothers." He looked around. "Speaking of brothers, where are the twins? I wanted to ask them more about Marie."

"Wasn't it weird that Dave just stopped arguing and sat down right away?" I blurted out, stating the scene that had bugged me the whole bus ride.

Noah nodded. "Strange indeed. It was like Dave and Kyle had a role reversal today. Dave usually has more attitude and is more confident, yet it was Kyle picking the fight today. And he even challenged the whole softball team." He paused for a second. "You understand that you have to be super great today, right?"

I pulled my eyebrows in. "Super? Is Porterville a good team?"

Noah's face twitched. "Well. I don't know. But just to be on the safe side. We'll only be able to record the softballs numbers up to the time coach tells us to go warmup. So we should aim high. High as this mountain. High as the sky." He looked at the softball field. "Mr. Miller was right though. Their field is small. Compared to Stanford's stadium, this looks like a little league field."

I nodded in agreement. I know he said that the base paths were smaller and that the mound was up close, but I didn't expect the overall field to be smaller too. Their outfield field fence was labeled with a plain 200feet on the corners. Center field wasn't listed, but it couldn't be anymore than 250feet.

An announcer through their broadcast system asked everyone to rise for the national anthem and to take off our hats. We did so. Afterwards, he started to announce the starting players for Porterville softball as they took the field. He then announced the lineup for our girls team. I heard all three names that I knew: Bailey, Marie, and Kaylee. It makes sense that the girls with the biggest attitude would have some skill to back it up.

"Kyle! Come here for a second!" Noah hollered down to Kyle, who was in a mini huddle of Garret and Dave.